STOP Doomscrolling: Why Choosing Joy is a Radical Act of Visibility

Is it okay to choose joy and consume light-hearted content when the world feels heavy? Host Jazzmyn says YES, and it's a radical act of resistance.

If you are an entrepreneur, creator, or visionary struggling with the pressure to be constantly "aware" and "loud," this episode is your PERMISSION SLIP to let go of the guilt.

In this unedited solo episode, Jazzmyn challenges the narrative that choosing happiness is irresponsible, diving deep into why:

• Choosing Joy is Radical: Prioritizing your own happiness and rest is the ultimate act of fighting burnout in a world designed for exhaustion.
• The Hater’s Trap: Why we are so quick to judge others for their success or light-hearted posts, and how that judgment often reflects our own scarcity mindset and visibility fears.
• Historical Context: Art and community have always flourished during hard times (e.g., the Harlem Renaissance and Woodstock). Showing up imperfectly is the only way to genuinely show up.
• Actionable steps to stop doomscrolling and regulate your nervous system.

Tune in to give yourself the gift of grace and reconnect with your inherent worth.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:09

In the year of 2025, where girly pops are stealing the scene and laboo-boos are the talk of the town, is it appropriate to be creating content for the sake of creating without any ulterior motive or deeper message? Hi, I'm Jasmine, host of the visibility standard, where showing up and being seen is the standard. And I wanted to drop my first unedited solo episode. I'm gonna shorten the word gaps because no one needs to hear me pause for 500 minutes. But part of being visible is sharing your opinions, being transparent, and honestly being imperfect, because being imperfect means that you're showing up. You have to show up imperfectly to show up. And if I'm gonna support other people in doing that, hell, I've gotta do that myself. And so I was thinking about this question earlier uh today about in this year where there is just so much happening politically, socially, there's there's literally something happening on every corner. Is it appropriate? Is it okay for people to create content, to consume content for the sake of enjoyment, for the sake of pleasure, without there being any deeper meaning, without needing to address the larger issues that are happening around the world? I want you to brace yourself for my answer, get your journal out, because my answer is yes. It is completely appropriate, it is completely okay if people want to continue creating content as usual, even with everything that is happening in this world. Here's the thing: the people that get the most heat about the content that they they create, their opinions, their thoughts on just creating and being cute is women. Y'all are so much harder on women in the media space than men. Digest that, sit with that. Women largely take up a lot of the creator economy. They are a lot of voices, influential voices, podcasting, who typically fall within the lifestyle space, who fall within the more fashion, uh the girly pops, you would call them. And they're creating content for fun. We just had a new pop album come out that was funsies, that was cutesy, that wasn't really addressing anything bigger than their art and themselves. We've actually had a couple girly pops drop their albums, and it has been pure pop genius. And a lot of the commentary around it has been Oh, we can't we can't enjoy that because this is what's happening, or why would you even talk about that right now when there's this thing happening? Yes, and two things can exist at the same time, and I don't know a single movement where art for the sake of art was not being created or consumed, even while really hard times were going on, and I typically see a pretty specific subset of folks who are always making those comments. And I want to say it is not your job to police how people are managing or coping during a very stressful time. It's not even your place to say how marginalized groups choose to cope and enjoy and experience this time. Take the Harlem Renaissance, for example, right around the civil rights movement. Yes, the civil rights movement was happening, serious stuff was happening, and African American musicians and artists were creating spaces to experience joy, to come together, to build community, to have fun, to laugh it off. Woodstock, for example, in response to the war in Vietnam, art for the sake of art, love, community, resisting that we are at war with one another and choosing love and community at a time that was very stressful. Most movements, all movements, have been followed up with artists, creatives, musicians, people continuing to show up in the ways that feel most impactful for them. I am having a really big issue with in this day and age where people only get to show up a certain way, and that qualifies that they are in the know of what's happening, they are aware, and they are doing something about it. And I think this also comes down to the parasocial relationships that people typically form on social media with folks that they really admire, or you know, artists that they have gotten through, gotten them through different seasons of life, and there is this assumption that you know what they're thinking, that you know their beliefs, that you know their values, when you only experience one facet of who they are, when you only experience not even a quarter of who they are, and you feel so emboldened to make an assumption, to make an opinion about who they are and where they stand because of what they said or haven't said. I do think in a time where extremist language elicits the most reactions, extreme language elicits the biggest emotional response from people, and that's what we gravitate to. We really should. I think that we could benefit from giving people more grace, giving more people the benefit of the doubt. Not everyone's contribution to resistance will be protesting or speaking directly to what's going on or rioting or anything of that matter. Just because it isn't this strong in your face reaction, it doesn't mean that they're not doing anything. And this is where movements and this is where people feel disemboldened to do nothing. This is where people feel disemboldened to do something because people are like, Oh, you're not doing enough, you're not loud enough, you're not sharing your point enough, and then the pe people are anxious, are like, well, if I'm not showing up this way, then maybe I shouldn't show up at all. It is going to take all of us, it is going to take everybody's strengths, skills, and talents to the table and saying, What is my contribution to what's going on right now? Is it art? Is it to help people feel good? We get to feel good as people. Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness that might feel surface level at a time where things are really heavy, but it is actually extremely radical to choose to feel good, to choose to consume things that make you feel good, whether it's your relationships, the content you consume, the content you create. Everything cannot be heavy or you will burn out. When you're scrolling through your phone and you're like, God, why do I feel so exhausted? It's because you're doom scrolling and you need to go touch grass. You need to go outside, you need to live your life still, go for a walk. Emotional fatigue is real. Our nervous systems were not meant to be constantly consuming, constantly consuming, and you constantly hear folks saying, I don't consume too much, or I've limited my consumption, I'm managing my consumption more. It is because it is so dysregulating for your nervous system to consistently be taking in information, constantly processing it, and not giving it the space to rest. If you have not read Rest is Resistance by Trisha Hersey, I will link it below. It is a revolutionary book. I highly recommend you read it, and it is literally about enjoyment. It is literally about rest. It is about giving ourselves what capitalism, what this world has taken away from us. Now, a lot of other commentary is okay, why are billionaires or people with money just acting like nothing is happening? Why do we need social media to validate a person's opinions? There was a time, I can remember it, and I'm only 28. There was a time where you could do good service, acts of service for people, and you did not need to post it online. You did not need to always prove that you were showing up, you were just showing up. It didn't matter what other people thought of your service, it didn't matter what the reactions or the likes will be. You just did it, because that was out of the goodness of your heart, and there is just such a lack of generosity, true generosity, because we live in a world where people make snap judgments about other people based on their content, based on their landscape, because they're focusing slowly on lifestyle content, day in my life, they're still traveling, they're still posting their accomplishments. We get to celebrate ourselves, and it's truly up to us to figure out why other people's success is triggering us. Is it because we feel like we've gotten an unfair hand? Is it because we are working our asses off and you constantly see the same person succeeding over and over again, and you're like, when is it my turn? Is it the scarcity that there isn't enough left for you? And therefore, this person has this thing, and now it's never going to come my way. Like, we really need to sit with why success triggers us so much. Why people living their lives to enjoy is so triggering, and that does not negate or take away the deep suffering and struggling that so many people experience, and I can understand those two very strong, just opposing experiences existing on the same timeline is really hard to digest. It's really hard to sit back and look at someone living their life uh flourishing in their success, living above or within their means, or seeing them perceptively act irrespectively or are not conscientious of what's happening around them while there are people who are truly suffering, where there are people who are finding it hard to just wake up and go to work, or are worried about if they will be able to go to work the next day and be paid. I understand that I sit with that reality so often when I'm working with clients, so it is not lost on me that there are two really different experiences that I can exist at the same time, but we have got to stop tearing people down simply because they are choosing to feel good. Honestly, I think that in these days people hate just to hate. Like they see someone hop on something and they hate it, and so other people kind of pile on and they want to hate it too. I actually think it's easier to be a hater than to choose joy, than to to feel happy for somebody, than to celebrate what somebody else is doing. I I think it is easier to be a hater because then we don't have to work with what's underlying in that in those feelings. We don't have to work with the jealousy, we don't have to work with the with the shame, we don't have to work with the insecurities that we might be sitting with while we are we are looking on the outside. Now there are people who make really shitty takes who yeah, judge them. I'm I'm certainly not above judging somebody. Uh there are people who share their opinions and you take them at face value, but the vast majority of us live in this really nuanced place. And I really hope that one day we can get to a place where that nuance gets to take over the narrative far more than extreme language. Cause all we're doing is pushing one another away when we choose to dig our heels and our opinions, when we choose cognitive dissonance, when we choose to really sink into what we believe is true so much that we push other people away, that is why we feel so disconnected. That is why there is a loneliness epidemic. Because we are choosing to believe so ferociously in our idea in our ideas that someone who may have a more nuanced, relaxed perspective is automatically considered a sellout or somebody who is not really present with what's happening. That benefit of the doubt, again, would really benefit us right now. It would really allow us to approach folks with a softer tone. Approach folks from a place of curiosity, wanting to understand, wanting to understand why they're still choosing to create in the ways that they're choosing to create and not talk about what's happening. There was a creator, her name is Hope Woodard, and I think that I just butchered her last name, but her name is Hope. She's a comedian, and she took an ad campaign with a pretty big company. I don't remember the company, but I remember her addressing the backlash that she got from that ad. A lot of people were like, Why would you partner with this brand when you say you stand for this, that, and the other? And she makes the statement about like I still have bills to pay, I still have uh aspirations for myself. I still want to make a living. Everyone's protest looks different, and all of us are living under the constraints of capitalism. All of us still have to pay our bills, all of us still have to figure it out. And so all of us are looking at resistance very differently. All of us are trying to figure out what it looks like to build a better tomorrow. This was really sitting on my heart because it's just we are in such a divisive time. We're in such a time where we are so quick to react. We're so dysregulated. When if we just went outside, when we have a snack, when we talk with a friend, when we allow ourselves to be present with our lives as much as possible, just for a moment of of sinking in that gratitude and recognizing that within our spaces we are building the resistance, we are building new communities, we are choosing to share love. People want to create because they still want to create content, they still want to create music, they still want to create art. The day that we don't have art is the day that we are really lost as a society. It's the day that we really have to step back from the darkness that is is consuming us and and weighing us down. We have to stop doom scrolling. We genuinely have to go touch grass. We need to go outside, we need to feel the air on our skin and be present with it. We need to be thoughtful of the relationships that we have, being more thoughtful of our real lives, and stop projecting all of that on to people who are still at the end of the day, people. It doesn't matter how much money they have, it doesn't matter what their follower count is, it doesn't matter how you perceive their status, they are still human. And meeting humans with compassion and curiosity and wanting to understand better from my experience has always wielded better results than when we're approaching them with criticism or distrust or assumptions that we can't prove or disprove unless we can. If you have the evidence, use it and you make the best informed choice for yourself. But the internet has been off the fucking chain lately. Like I scroll sometimes and I'm like, we have lost our minds, and we're just dysregulated, like we are dysregulated folks. Our bodies are like, I cannot take another hit, I cannot take something else happening, and so we react and we react and we react and we're just constantly reacting. That's not bringing us closer together, that is not bringing a solution. All that's doing is activating our nervous systems. All that's doing is activating our bodies to a place where we're not going to be able to be present with other people, we're not going to be able to have those important conversations. It's okay to laugh still, it's okay to enjoy. It is so radical to choose joy, to choose rest in a world that wants us to be bogged down. And all of these media, all of this consumption that happens, all that does is disconnect us from our own knowing. It disconnects us from the truly human experience of relaxing and existing without comparison, without jealousy, with and reminding ourselves of our inherent worth. When we allow ourselves to disconnect a little bit from social media, when it we allow ourselves to take a step back and evaluate what's really coming up. Healing has no timeline. And then all the messaging about back to normal happened. Oh, let's go back to normal. And some of us went in survival mode and went back to normal, but now we're like, fuck, I really miss those simpler times because that is truly what life is about: connecting with loved ones, creating, resting, and being connected with values that run much deeper than really anyone can change. So I am going to pose the question for you what are ways that you can be more connected in your everyday life? And I challenge you to stop scrolling. Like give yourself 10 minutes that you would usually take to scroll or be on your phone and do something else. Sit outside, sit in silence, journal, read, color. Do something else. And then tell me how it feels. You're not gonna feel like instant like gratification from it, but it's giving your body a break to digest everything, to process everything, and to figure out how to move forward. And what if you did that five minutes every day? And that five minutes turned to ten minutes, and that ten minutes turned to twelve minutes, and that twelve minutes turned to fifteen. Habit stacking, building better habits, start with tiny, tiny steps. That's all I've got for you today. Let me know what you think in the comments. I want to hear your thoughts on this episode. Something that was really on my heart, and I'm glad I was able to share it and get my thoughts out there. But I would love to hear what you're thinking. You can find me on all socials at Healing with Jasmine. And I cannot wait to share my episode with my dream date this week. But you'll have to stay tuned to learn more. Bye.